Creating Harmony: Inside my Sketchbook No. 1

A pretty convincing argument could be made that I have too many sketchbooks & notebooks, especially when you consider the fact that none of these are full (yet).

I used one of my favourite art journaling methods today: packing tape and magazine pictures.

It is a very easy photo transfer technique. You put packing tape over the image you want to transfer, being careful to keep the tape as smooth as possible (meaning no folds or creases). It is worth it to take the extra care and attention during this step as you only get one chance, once the tape is on the image, it is on the image!

I then put the magazine page in a bowl of warm water.

After 10 minutes, take the image out of the water and you should be able to remove the paper from the tape by gently rubbing on the back. If it doesn't come off, put it back in to soak or you can try rubbing again in the sink under running water.

The ink from the image should be "ghosted" on the tape and the tape should retain some of its stickiness. I pat it dry with a tea towel and then place it on my page. As the image will retain some of the transparency, you can start your sketch or journaling before you place the image transfer on your page.

This was a light coloured image to begin with (sorry no before photo), so the image is very faint. I find the results vary from magazine to magazine and is dependent on the colours in the picture. Darker hues are picked-up more by the tape than lighter ones.

I kept this page simple and added a quote to finish it off.

I enjoyed a trip through the pages of this book as I haven't picked it up in a long time. The picture of the giraffes was inspired by a pocket-door that separated my boys' rooms in our old house. My middle son and I would find pictures in the wood grain and tell stories about them (yes, just like cloud-gazing). The 2 giraffes was one of our favourites.